Here it is, the most adorable Bluetooth Speaker on the market. The Philips SoundShooter Portable Bluetooth Speaker is a rubberized barrel (or grenade) shaped speaker no bigger than an apple. The SoundShooter packs big sound, wireless and wired connectivity, a built-in rechargeable 8-hour battery, and even a microphone for making and taking phone calls.

What’s in the box

Aside from the Philips SoundShooter, there’s an included caribiner and a charging/aux cable. The cable is especially interesting as it’s capable of charging the device with USB and also playing music from the headphone jack of a device at the same time.

Design

The build of the Philips SoundShooter is one of its coolest features. The barrel shaped speaker is covered in a bright blue durable rubber pattern. It’s very portable and not too heavy. On the top of the barrel is the speaker’s diaphragm, which you can see pulsate from cranking tunes. There’s one button for answering phone calls and pausing music and one switch for switching between ‘off’, ‘aux’, and ‘bluetooth’. While the design is super unique, it’s really quite simple.

Features

This SoundShooter is a bluetooth speaker capable of wirelessly pairing with most any bluetooth device like iOS and Android phones and tablets. Aside from just playing music from your phone, it can also make and receive phone calls. It uses a standard micro-USB cable to charge and has a battery capable of streaming music for 8 hours. Philips included a caribiner so you can hook the SoundShooter to your belt, bag, bike, or anything else.

Performance

For a speaker its size, the SoundShooter gets really loud. Like, surprisingly loud almost. While it gets really loud, the audio can get distorted and tinny even at low volumes. It’s still very listenable, though. The SoundShooter is great because of its portability, so for that reason you’d have no reason to complain about sound quality when you bring it to the beach, use it in the bathroom while showering, take it along on a bike ride, or power a small party.

As a tool for bringing loud portable music anywhere, it’s great, especially with the long battery life. The caribiner and durable body are fun additions for getting creative with its possibilities. The overall durability is pretty good with one exception. The speaker diaphragm is largely exposed. It’s cool from a visual standpoint, but it’s a delicate part of the speaker. The bluetooth range is a little disappointing, cutting out at a distance of even 10 feet.

Using the SoundShooter to make and take phone calls is great. My callers sounded perfect on my end and they said it sounded just like any other cell phone from their end. It’s nice to have the button to answer and end phone calls. The button can also play and pause music, but it can’t skip tracks or activate voice commands.

Conclusion

The Philips SoundShooter Bluetooth Speaker is an awesome device for making big sound portable. The audio quality, while not the best, gets really loud for this little barrel speaker. We love that it’s bluetooth with a built-in microphone for making speakerphone calls. All-in-all, it has a fun portable design great bringing on-the-go; it’s a loud but mediocre speaker with a long rechargeable battery. The SoundShooter retails for $49.99.